By Landon Holben

For each step forward that the LGBTQ+ community and its allies make, there is almost always a counterexample that shows the world is still as dangerous a place as ever for the community. Recently, a constitutional referendum vote to explicitly limit same-sex marriage was struck down before it even reached the voting stage in Romania. Yet just a month before, world news headlines described the horrific public caning and fining of two homosexual women in Malaysia. The LGBTQ+ rights crisis is a human rights crisis and should be treated as such, especially in regions such as Southeast Asia where the community is often helpless in the face of state-sponsored homophobia and discrimination.

The punishment of the two women took place in Terengganu, a state to the east of Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur. The state is known to be governed by Sharia law, including special courts specifically for Muslims. Each woman was lashed six times after being caught attempting to have sex in a parked car. They were also required to pay a fine of 3,300 ringgits ($800) each. This punishment was carried out within a courtroom with many public observers. Current Malaysian anti-sodomy law, largely unchanged since 1826, provides for whipping and up to a 20-year prison sentence for homosexual acts.

On September 22, 2018, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the current head of government in Malaysia, responded to criticisms made by The Human Rights Coalition of Malaysia (Suhakam) by stating that LGBT rights and same-sex marriages were unacceptable in Malaysia due to its status as a Muslim-majority nation. That same day, Suhakam itself announced that they also do not support same-sex marriage, despite their championing of the universality of human rights and criticisms of the Malaysian government’s human rights record. This is a common theme in Malaysia, as many organizations criticize discrimination and violence against the LBGT+ community, yet maintain the stance that members of the community are going against Islam and need to return to the “right” path. Since the mid-1970’s Malaysia has been undergoing a period of Islamization, in which the government has set traditional Islam on a crash course with constitutional law. Anti-sodomy laws were rarely enforced in Malaysia through most of the 20th century, yet the politically-charged persecution of the former parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has now set the nation well behind many of its Southeast Asian counterparts. Anwar was first charged and jailed in 1998 before the verdict was overturned in 2004. Charges were brought again in 2008, but after trials in 2010, 2011, and 2012 he was acquitted. The Malaysian Court of Appeal overturned this acquittal in 2014, sentencing Anwar to five years in prison, which he served until his pardon on May 16, 2018. It can be argued then, that discrimination has worsened in recent years due to a combination of stricter government adherence to traditional Islam and the public discrediting of Anwar. The general population of Malaysia is being held back from learning to accept progress for the LGBTQ+ community due to the current administration’s reliance upon traditional Islam as the basis for the law.

Singapore, another nation that inherited its laws against homosexuality from the British Empire, began to review these laws throughout the last decade, essentially leading the government to declare that private acts between consenting adults would not be prosecuted. This, coupled with a dramatic rise in public acceptance for same-sex relationships over the last five years, presents a promising outlook for Singapore’s future with human rights. This goes to show that if the government is willing to lessen discrimination laws, the general public will often follow suit. This is also the case in India, which legalized homosexuality on September 6, 2018, a decision that has enjoyed support from a majority of the general population.

The case could be similar in Malaysia if the government were to lessen their support for discrimination, as India especially is a deeply traditional and religious country, much like Malaysia. The Malaysian government, however, has publicly defended human rights epidemics such as child marriage as being a lesser problem than LGBTQ+ activity. The government has also contributed directly to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the nation by limiting public advertisement of condom-usage and treatment options. Malaysia is seventh highest in adult prevalence of HIV/AIDS in all of Asia, and even current government programs to curve the upward trend are ineffective due to the widespread discrimination and social stigmata around HIV/AIDS. This trend, which affects far more than just the LGBTQ+ community, could be reversed with government intervention and the allowance of resources to change social perspectives and combat the disease.